A Tilehurst teenager who brutally knifed two schoolgirls and carried out a string of sex assaults on others, has been jailed for 17 years.

Callum Stroomer, who was 17 at the time of the attack, treated women so badly because he had not come to terms with being gay, a court heard.

The now 18-year-old, of Dee Road, said he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone and attacked two 15-year-old girls with a kitchen knife, leaving one of them blind in one eye.

A judge jailed him for 17 years for two counts of attempted murder and assaulting and raping two other schoolgirls when he appeared at Reading Crown Court on Friday, October 23.

Stroomer claimed he was acting in self-defence when he lashed out with the knife at a home in Bracknell after being the target of gay taunts from the girls.

However jurors disbelieved his version of events - and were shocked to hear after delivering their verdict that Stroomer had also admitted six sex offences against two different girls aged 13 to 15 years, including two counts of rape.

Stroomer was jailed for 13 and-a-half years for each of the two counts of attempted murder, to run concurrently.

Charges

Two counts of attempted murder

Two counts each of assault by penetration

Two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity

Two counts of rape

Stroomer "pestered" girls for explicit photos

Stroomer "pestered" two girls to send him explicit photos and sexual text messages, then used a topless photo to blackmail one of them to give him forced oral sex and assaulted a girl in a corner of an ice rink.

While on bail for six child sex offences, on March 1 this year Stroomer pulled a knife from the kitchen of a house in Bracknell, and launched a violent attack on two different girls. He then left them bleeding on the floor and rang 999 reporting that two men had broken in and attacked them.

Rossano Scamardella, prosecuting, said the knife attack had left the pair with both psychological and physical injuries. One had lost the sight in her right eye and suffered from recurrent panic attacks.

Stroomer's other stab victim had only this week been able to walk unassisted, after using a crutch for the past seven months. She was also "troubled about being alone," and her confidence had been knocked, Mr Scamardella said, while his rape and assault victims had required counselling.

Jailing Stroomer, Judge John Reddihough said the knifing had been an "extremely violent and sustained attack," which left one girl perilously close to death.

Judge: "The defendant intended to kill both girls."

He said: "You stand convicted of very serious sexual and violent offences, the latter being carried out in a most brutal manner.

"The defendant intended to kill both girls. Having heard the evidence at trial, I am sure there was no question of the girls attacking the defendant."

Regarding the sexual abuse, the judge said: "There is no doubt that in relation to each of these victims, the defendant acted in a calculated, manipulative and controlling manner."

James Bloomer, defending, said Stroomer may have lashed out at the girls because he was struggling with the fact he was gay.

He said: "It is possible in our view to see this clearly calculated and unpleasant behaviour against women... as a quite unacceptable, wholly inappropriate way of acting out heterosexuality, that he felt a reason to act out.

"That's not an excuse. He has now confronted the fact that he is homosexual."

Stroomer had an interest in "violent things"

At an earlier hearing Stroomer had admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent for the knife attack but denied charges of attempted murder.

During his nine day trial at Reading Crown Court a judge heard Stroomer had an interest in "violent things" and wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.

A row started between Stroomer and the two 15-year-old friends, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after the defendant refused to leave a house.

One of the girls, giving evidence from behind a screen, said the last thing she remembered was smacking the back of her head on a kitchen cabinet and falling to the floor after being pushed by Stroomer.

Her friend's boyfriend witnessed the prelude to the attack while she was speaking to him on the phone via Facetime video.

He told the court: "I told Callum 'you are freaking them out, just leave'. Then I saw Callum touching the tip of the knife and say 'this is pretty sharp'."

Witness: "She was begging him"

The boyfriend described hearing a loud crash, before Stroomer began walking towards the girl telling her to put the phone down.

He added: "She put the phone down but I could still hear, she was begging him. She was scared and shocked and then the phone went off."

Mr Bloomer said nothing he could say would take away from the seriousness of Stroomer's "deeply, deeply unattractive behaviour."

Judge Reddihough said he took into account Stroomer's guilty pleas for the sex offences, his age at the time of all the offending and the fact he had a personality disorder.

However psychiatric reports showed the teen had shown "limited victim empathy or remorse," the judge said, and posed a serious "risk of manipulative behaviour capable of causing serious or unrecoverable harm or death." He has not engaged with treatment programmes in custody so far.

Stroomer was jailed for 13 and-a-half years for each of the two counts of attempted murder, to run concurrently.

He admitted two counts each of assault by penetration, relating to a 13-year-old girl when he was aged 15, rape of a 15-year-old girl when he was aged 16 or 17 years and causing a child to engage in sexual activity when he was aged 16.

Stroomer was handed a consecutive three-and-half year jail term for these offences, with a further three years extended period for the attempted murders, to run after the sexual terms. He must serve two thirds of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.

He was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placed on the Sex Offenders' Register indefinitely. As he was taken down to the cells, the teenager took off his square, dark-rimmed glasses and waved at a family member - who did not return the gesture.